


The Real Reason Why

by maradeux



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Cold, F/M, Fanfiction, Fever, Sickfic, Sneezing, sick!JJ
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-16
Updated: 2017-04-23
Packaged: 2018-10-19 17:25:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10644576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maradeux/pseuds/maradeux
Summary: Against all odds, the always confident, strong Canadian ice-skater Jean-Jacques Leroy failed in his short program during the Grand Prix Final in Barcelona. The audience thought, it was due to too much pressure. They didn’t know how wrong and how right they were…





	1. Part One

**Author's Note:**

> This chapter follows the events of the episodes 10 of YURI!!! ON ICE, season 1 with focus on Jean-Jacques Leroy's short program and free skate. But here, the Canadian skater suffers from a bad cold.

 

 

“No, no, this can’t be true…” the young ice-skater said looking at the thermometer in his hand with a look of sheer desperation on his face. When he had woken up with a sore throat and a slight headache, he had hoped, it was just the dry air. But feeling the weakness in his bones, seeing his pale face in the bathroom mirror, he had taken the thermometer out of the medicine cabinet right behind that mirror and had put it between his lips apprehensively. 37.8 (100)… That wasn’t high, that wasn’t dangerous; but it was the clear indicator that he had an infect.

Why? How could that happen? He had been so careful – had eaten healthily, had slept enough, had always washed his hands… He had even abstained from kissing Isabella when she had come down with a cold last week. But obviously, he had managed to catch that infection nevertheless – three days before the Grand Prix Final…

Anyway – if anything, this was just a cold. Such a small bug couldn’t hold the King away from the ice! JJ knew that other figure-skaters have managed competitions while being sick as well. He knew about Victor running a fever of 39 (102.2) during one of his free skates last year – and he had won! What that old Russian could do, he would be able to master as well. 

The young skater took an aspirin, then started to pack his last bag for the flight to Barcelona. JJ didn’t want to inform his parents or Isabella about his sickness yet. Maybe he was lucky, and this was nothing but a twenty-four hours’ bug? After all, Isabella had been over her cold quite quickly…

During the flight to Europe, JJ’s throat was sore, his head ached, his nose was a bit stuffy; and his ears hurt more than usual; but that was nothing he couldn’t handle or hide from his family. 

It was late afternoon when they arrived in Barcelona. The young figure skater felt exhausted and run down, but his beautiful fiancée was vibrant with energy; and was eager to go for a dinner at one of Barcelona’s exclusive restaurants. JJ was determined to do Isabella that favor, so he put on some nice clothes, took lozenges to help his throat and another aspirin; then he left his room to knock on Isabella’s door. She looked amazing in her black jeans and a grey top that swirled around her girlish figure. She also wore the necklace with his initials which had been his present for her last birthday.

When the lift arrived in the lobby, they ran into Yuri Plisetsky and his rabid fans. JJ didn’t feel like talking, but Isabella started a discussion about JJ-Girls being better than Yuri’s Angels. His darling could be sassy sometimes… Of course, Yuri snapped at her – JJ wouldn’t have thought anything else about the Russian Punk. He tried to react pacifying as well as protective of his fiancée. This was his way – he was confident; maybe arrogant sometimes; but he also was friendly to everyone. And – to his luck – his voice was still strong. It didn’t sound sick; a bit deeper than usual maybe. But he doubted that anyone had noticed.

The next morning greeted JJ with headaches and aching limbs. His nose was runny and ticklish. He sat up and caught a row of sneezes in some tissues _._ Gladly, he had been clever enough to put a box of them on his nightstand. The young man got up and scuffled to the bathroom for a shower. The warm water felt good on his aching, shivery body. However, the steam also triggered more sneezes and coughs.

“Good morning! Has someone ordered coffee?” Isabella entered JJ’s hotel suite in a good mood, two steaming mugs in her hands. She wondered where her fiancé was, then heard the noises from the bathroom. “Oh…” some concern showed in her pretty face, “Are you alright, darling?”

“Yeah, I’m…  _hk’SHEEE… HAPTSHEE_ … sorry…  _sniff_ … I’m with you in a minute,” he answered breathily, rubbing his bothersome nose with the back of his hand while leaving the shower and taking a big bathing towel to wrap his shivering body with it. Some goosebumps were running up and down his skin and a small row of coughs was bubbling out of him.

“Bless you! Oh dear… you’re sick…” A wrinkle of worry showed between Isabella’s blue eyes and the smile had vanished completely.

“It’s nothing, don’t worry,” JJ said with another sniff as he exited the bathroom. He cast his girlfriend a smile, then quickly went over to his bed to towel and put on his sports clothes. Isabella was slowly following him and set the mugs down on the nightstand. She touched his forehead and cheeks with her soft hands.

“You have a fever…” She sat down next to him and took the towel to rub his still wet hair.

“Just a small one…” JJ sniffed, and his breathing hitched. He quickly took a tissue to stifle a small sneeze.

“Seems you’ve caught my cold. I’m so sorry…”

“Ah, honey, don’t worry. That’s nothing, a king can’t handle.” He blinked one eye and took his girlfriend’s face between his hands to kiss her cheeks and then her forehead. Isabella answered by embracing him and kissing his lips. “I will take good care of you. We’re going to fight through this together,” she whispered, then deepened the kiss until JJ tensed and his breathing hitched. He quickly drew away to…  _HAK’PTSHUUH_ … catch a violent sneeze in a tissue. “Sorry…” he sniffed, his eyes tearing.

Before he started to his last practice prior to the competition, JJ took some decongestants, throat lozenges and an aspirin. Although his symptoms were under control this way, the young skater failed some of the jumps he usually mastered with ease. There were other skaters on the ice rink as well. JJ was professional enough to hide his weakness and let it just look as if he was taking it easy; and deliberately only jumped singles that day.

“Are you alright, darling?”, asked Nathalie, his mother and coach. She studied his face worriedly – her boy looked rather pale…

“Yes, I’m fine, mum. Just tired. It’s probably the jetlag.” The young man suppressed a cough.

Nathalie didn’t look convinced. “Okay, then let’s skip for today,” she said with a light smile.

Hearing that, JJ smiling turned to the other skaters, calling aloud, “Enough practice for today. I’m off, everybody.” 

His words and his wide smile had the desired effect – some of his competitors looked uncertain; Yuri P. mumbled grumpily when his coach ordered him to repeat his routine one more time. Content with himself, the young Canadian left the ice rink, fighting off the shivers that wanted to crawl along his skin.

Back at the hotel, JJ took a warm shower; then put on some warm sweatpants, a hoody, and thick socks before he crawled under the covers of his bed. Isabella wanted to do a shopping tour with some of her friends; but the young skater didn’t feel well enough to accompany her. The scratchy feeling was back to his throat, his head hurt; and his whole body felt sore after that short practice. Also, his nose, that had given him some rest with the help of the medicine, started to bother him again; and he sniffled frequently.

“Are you sure I shouldn’t stay with you?”, the young woman asked.

“No, darling. Please go and amuse yourself. I’m only going to take a nap. This would be boring to watch.” He sniffled, rubbed his nose, and winked at her.

“Okay…” she answered hesitantly, touching his cheek and temple with the back of her fingers. He felt warmer than in the morning. “But call me if you need something…”

“See you tonight.” He smiled at her, brushed one of her curls form her forehead and kissed her lips.

Only when his girlfriend had left the room, JJ released the sneezes and coughs, he had held back for some time, into a bunch of tissues.

Half an hour later, his mother was sitting on his bed, stroking his face while reading the thermometer in her hand. His temperature was 38 (100.4).

“And you’ve already taken medicine?”, his mother asked. JJ nodded. The hand of his mother felt good. He almost fell asleep under her touch. “Did you take care it was nothing from the prohibited list?”

“Mum! Do you think I’m stupid? I’ve been doing this sport for sixteen years now!” Being upset triggered a small coughing fit. His voice started to sound hoarse.

“I’m sorry, my sunshine, calm down,” Nathalie said. She brought him a lemon tea and wrapped a scarf around his neck. “Try to sleep now. And call me if you need anything else.”

Back to their own room, Nathalie told her husband Alain about JJ’s state. “Damn, I knew we should have held Isabella away from him when she was ill!”, the man grumbled, knitting his thick, grey eyebrows. “Will he be alright?”

“As far as I could see it’s just a cold. But he isn’t used to be sick in a competition.”

“No, the boy has no experience in struggling through. Up till now, everything came so easy to our darling of fortune…”

To his own surprise, JJ felt better when he woke up in the late afternoon. He drank the rest of the now cold tea and ate an energy bar. He was hungry; and took that as a good sign. When Isabella came back from her shopping tour, he welcomed her with a smile and a kiss. “Have you found something nice?”, he asked, only the smallest hint of congestion in his voice.

“Yes, a new coat! Look…” She presented him a nice, beige trench coat with her gracile moves.

JJ smiled. “Well, don’t I have the most beautiful fiancé in the world… Let’s go out, darling!”

The walked hand in hand through the streets of Barcelona. It was just end of November; but everything seemed to be already in Christmas mood – there was a Christmas market, lights everywhere… The weather was unusually cold for Spain. JJ felt the freezing air creeping through the layers of his clothes that clearly were not warm enough. It crawled along his skin with icy fingers. His head started to hurt, his neck craved for a scarf as his throat felt sensitive and every swallowing caused a stitching pain. Maybe that dinner wasn’t such a good idea after all…

“Did you hear that, darling?” Isabella jolted him out of his thoughts. They had stopped near a restaurant with open, heated tents. A lot of noise was there, as if the people were celebrating something.

“What do you mean, Bella?” the young Canadian cleared his throat to stop his voice from sounding scratchy.

“Didn’t you hear that? Where are you with your thoughts?” She sighed, then explained, “Victor that…” the young woman seemed to look for an appropriate invective; but maybe she was too upset to find one. Her porcelain face became all red, anger sparkled in her big blue eyes.

“That Russian rat…!” she finally said. “had announced his engagement with that terrible Yuri Kat…… that Japanese failure… And if this wasn’t enough, he also told, he would marry him if he wins the gold medal! Darling, you can’t allow that! I’m much longer your fiancée already. They are stealing us – I mean  _you_ – the show!”

JJ rubbed his aching head. “Isabella… calm down, please…” He sighed lowly. “You are right,” he added smiling when he saw how disappointed she looked. Embracing her tightly, he went to the open window and raised his voice, praying it would hold. “You’re kidding me, right,” he called aloud. Gladly, his voice sounded stable and healthy despite of his sore throat. “I’ll be the one winning gold and getting married. I hate to break it to you, guys.”

Isabella happily chimed in, “That’s right. JJ’s obviously going to win.”

Encouraged by the fire of his love and passion for his beautiful fiancé, the skater added, “Sorry, we can’t congratulate you. Guess, the wedding’s off.”

The voices and celebrations in the tent calmed down completely after JJ’s words. Victor and the other skaters who were dining there stood up and left the restaurant. That was not what he had intended. Maybe, his last words had been a bit over the top? “Hey? What’s up?” he asked, quieter than before. “You’re all leaving? Hey, come on! That was just a joke…”

After the adrenaline rush of that incident had calmed down, the skater’s symptoms worsened rapidly. He started to sniffle and cough; and when he was shivering visibly, Isabella took his hand and looked at him full of worry. “JJ… darling… I think, we should go. I’m not that hungry anyway…”

They had only had their appetizer, but the skater nodded. “Alright then…  _huuu’RETSHUH_ … sorry…  _sniff_ … let’s go back.”

“Bless you,” Isabella whispered sympathetically and gave JJ her napkin. His own had been soaked already.

 

–To be continued –

 


	2. Part Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapters follows the events of the episodes 11 and 12 of YURI!!! ON ICE, season 1 with focus on Jean-Jacques Leroy's short program and free skate. Just, in this story, the Canadian skater suffers from a bad cold.

Isabella stayed in his hotel room when they came back after dinner. This was against the agreement with his parents and coaches – they didn’t have separate rooms for nothing. JJ should concentrate on his competition. His fiancée was only allowed as a ‘supportive fan’ so to say. But she was worried about him. The young skater kept shivering. He kept sniffling and coughing. And from time to time, some really desperate sneezes escaped him. The skater managed to stifle them on their way through the lobby; but in the lift… _HAK’TSHEE… HUREW’TSHEEE… K’TSHEE…_ He held a tissue to his nose and tears were streaming down his face from the intense.

“Bless you, darling,” Isabella mumbled worriedly and rubbed his back.

She helped him to change and lie down. “I’m staying here,” she whispered. “I won’t leave you alone when you’re feeling so bad.” She ran her fingers through his dark hair and worriedly felt his too warm forehead. When the Canadian had a bad sneezing fit two hours later; and felt like his temperature had spiked even more, Isabella got anxious and called his parents.

His mother could help him – her skillful hands, her soothing words; and the medicine she brought. JJ calmed down and fell asleep.

* * *

 The next morning, he was feeling horrible. Head and limbs aching, he couldn’t swallow as his throat hurt so much and couldn’t breathe through his nose – it was completely blocked. That didn’t stop it from running and tickling. JJ’s breathing hitched. He closed his eyes, his mouth half open, his nose twitching while his fingers fumbled blindly for the tissue box on his nightstand. _Hhh… hhhhh… HMP’TSHUUUH… HFFT’SHUUUH… HKT’SHUUUH…_ Exhaustedly, the young skater caught the sneezes in a bunch of tissues in his hand. He tried sniffling thereafter. No way – his nose was still blocked. He could only wipe the dripping, tingling mess away that was running out of his nostrils.

“How are you, darling?”, his mother asked when she was coming with tea, gruel, medicine and a thermometer to look after him.

“Beedn better,” he muttered. His voice sounded terrible.

Nathalie put her cool, soft hand on his forehead. JJ closed his eyes – it felt so pleasant. “Do you want to cancel the competition if you feel so bad, my dear?” she asked him worried.

The young skater shook his head so furiously, he became dizzy. “Ndo, mbub…” he sat up in bed, tried to sniffle, tried to blow his nose; both without any success. It only triggered more sneezes. “Ndo… _hhhh…_ I… _hhhhh…. HEP’TSHEW… HEK’TSH… HEP’TSHUUUH…_ ” Again, the force of his sneezes ripped his throat and let his eyes tear. He wiped them away with a tissue and blinked his sore, glassy eyes. “Ndo… I still wadt to wid.”

 

A good decongestant nose-spray could help a bit with the congestion. Ibuprofen could drop the fever and take at least a part of the pains away. And after a long shower, JJ looked better than he thought would be possible.

“Now, go out there and make us proud.”

“Get out there and show them good, son.”

The words of his parents sounded in his mind. Between them his own words. “I’ll be the one winning gold and getting married!” As well as Isabella’s “JJ’s obviously going to win.”

A shudder was running down his spine. It was one of many since this morning. The overall weak feeling remained as well as the pressure behind his forehead and in his sinuses. The coldness of the ice rink felt so much more intense than usually. But here, he was. This was the Grand Prix Final. And this was his short program. There was the music; and there his first step…

_Come on… I can’t be weak now. That wouldn’t be me. I’m King JJ, that’s my song. I’m not just going for supremacy over the Grand Prix series but a grand slam of the Canadian nationals, the four continents and the world championship right now. It’s totally within my… Oh dear… What’s that? I feel so dizzy… My legs… as if they had no muscles anymore. Come, jump! Quadruple Toe loop. Good. Managed that one. But no power for the second jump. No problem. I’ll just put the combination into the second half. Now, the triple Axel. Jump! Fuck! That was only a single…_

“JJ!”, he heard his mother’s worried cry.

“Damned, he’s letting the pressure of the final get to him,” his father said lowly.

“You know, it’s not just that,” Nathalie answered.

“He allows that cold to weaken him too much. He should have the situation better under control.”

“Alain! You haven’t seen him this morning… It’s a wonder, he can still stand.”

_Isabella… My sweet Isabella… I can hear you. I hear your voice. You’re wearing my ring. I’m going to marry you. I want to win this for you… Dear God, what’s wrong? Why is it so cold? I feel like I’m falling! I cannot fall! I’m on the ice! This is the short program! Oh no… This jump went wrong as well… So, this is it. The pressure of competing in the Grand Prix Final… But I won’t give up! I am JJ!_

_I can hear you, Isabella. I can here you, my fans… All of you. You are singing my song. Whatever happens – I’ll never stop taking risks. Here comes the Lutz - Jump! A single again…_

He was exhausted. So exhausted… His breath didn’t want to come. His legs felt wobbly. JJ didn’t remember the way to the kiss and cry. But he could see the number – 86.71. That was the lowest score of his senior division career.

_I don’t understand… What happened to me? Could a cold really weaken me that much?_

His father looked sad and a bit disappointed. His mother rubbed his back soothingly and whispered into his ear. “It’s all right, my sunshine. There will be other competitions. Just concentrate on getting better now.”

When the Canadian skater wanted to leave the area, he heard Isabella’s voice again. “J-J, J-J, J-J…” She was calling his name, again and again. Alone at first; then other fan’s chimed in. Finally, the whole Canadian fan-block was chorusing his name. “J-J, J-J, J-J…” It moved him to tears. His fans were still standing by his side. They still believed in him. He couldn’t leave without a sign. 

“Stop!”, he called out – raspy and congested. Standing up, he made his signature move – arms stretched to both sides, eyes closed. Then, crossing the arms before his chest; forefingers up in the air; a bright smile and one eye blinking. “That’s right. It’s JJ-Style!”

Good that his fans and all microphones were far away. Only his parents could hear how bad his voice sounded right now.

 

In the evening, JJ’s fever spiked. Between congestion, sneezing and coughing fits, he couldn’t find sleep. His mother called the team doctor to look at him.

“Well, it’s a bad cold,” the physician said after the examination. “With bed rest and fluids, he should be over the worst in a few days.”

“Doctor, tomorrow is his free skate as you know. It there nothing, you can do for him?”

“The doping rules are quite hard as you know, Nathalie. I can’t give him anything stronger than the things I already see here on the bedside table.” The doctor said scratching the back of his neck.

“I… understand…” The mother looked a bit disappointed but mostly sad when she saw the doctor to the door.

 

* * *

After his third failed jump during practice, JJ threw his water bottle on the ice and fell to his knees, sobbing, and hiding his face in his hands. He was at the end of his powers. His body ached, his head felt like it would explode any minute; and he couldn’t breathe through his blocked nose.

“JJ…” His mother crouched down by him, putting her hand on his shoulder in a supportive manner.

“Leave be alode,” the skater screamed raspily between gasps, then fell into a coughing fit. “Sorry, mob,” he added after he regained some breath. “I’b sorry, I dod’t dow what to do.” The fever let him shiver.

“We could cancel the free skate,” his mother offered calmly while helping him up and out of the ice rink.

“Thed everyode would thigk I duck off because of the bad score. No, I see that through to the fidish.”

“Darling, you can hardly stand…”

Another problem - the young skater was so congested that he could hardly _hear_. His head felt like it was filled with glue. It hurt so much; and every time, he raised his gaze, the world started spinning. Another sneezing fit in the locker room left him exhausted. All he wanted, was a bed and sleeping for a week. But there was no way. The free skate started in a few minutes; and he would be the first on the ice after his disastrous short program.

JJ had tried to hide his state all the time. But now – immediately before the start of his skate -  there were sweat drops on his pale face. His parents both looked concerned. His mother was holding his hands. “Go on, JJ, you can do this!”, she said. But there was too much worry in her voice for her words to sound convincing.

He was standing in the middle of the ice rink; his breathing laborious despite the decongestant. He tried to concentrate but heard nothing than the blood rushing in his ears.

“JJ, the music started!” his mum called.

The young skater was petrified. Now, he could hear it as well. _I can’t believe I just did that! I’ve been skating for sixteen years. And now I suddenly feel like I’ve been tossed onto the ice for the first time._

The first jump of his program was a fail – just as he and probably everyone had expected. His legs were too weak, he didn’t have enough drive and landed with a hand on the ice. When he heard his fans still chorusing his name, he felt anger rising. _Stop it! I don’t deserve your applause right now!_ Suddenly, he felt a power rushing through his veins like boiling oil. He had no idea where it came from. But his next jumps… Quadruple Toe loop, triple Toe loop - he could land them successfully!

“Yeah! He did it!”, his parents cheered with tears in their eyes.

It was like his legs could turn alone; found the right way and strength in a magical way. Nevertheless, he felt, what just happened was not a wonder healing. His nose was still clocked, his ears ringing, his head pounding. Each of his breaths was burning in his throat and chest; and his heart was beating much too fast – not only from exhaustion but from his fever as well. But whatever it was that let him run like a clockwork all of a sudden, he accepted it gratefully. He knew, there was no logical chance for him to win the Grand Prix anymore; not even to reach the podium.   _Well – I can reach it – if all the others mess up._ The thought let him inwardly laugh at himself. _Winning out of sheer luck? That’s not like me at all! Jump! Triple Axel! Another success!_

Alain was smiling broadly. “We’ll greet him with a smile no matter what score he gets.”

His wife gave him a strange side-look. “Why certainly? That goes without saying, even without any successful jumps…” She was still worried about her son. The adrenaline rush – it couldn’t be anything else – wouldn’t last forever…

_Here – look at me – that’s JJ!_ Everything was so easy now. As if nothing had happened – no cold, no fever, no congestion… as if his legs had never felt like gum. Here came his last jump. Planned was a quadruple Toe loop. _But a plan is just a plan!_ He jumped, he turned, he landed. _Yes! Quadruple loop! That’s Jean-Jacques Leroy – he rose to the challenge!_

“Have you seen that, darling? Have you seen?”, Nathalie was pulling at her husband’s arm; tears of joy in her eyes. “A quadruple loop! He has never jumped that successfully before!”

“Well yeah… there was a step-out in the end, but overall, a great jump,” Alain answered grinning. He was relieved and he was proud. That was his son! Now, he had found his real strength.

That boiling oil was still there when JJ got his high score and gave his first interview after his free skate. But when the skater was back in the locker room, it vanished as suddenly as it had come. Shivering and embracing himself against the chill, he was sitting on the bench. Chin on his chest and mouth slightly open, he felt pains everywhere and couldn’t breathe through his blocked nose which was itching and tickling and… _hhhh… hhh… HEK’TSH… HAK’THEEESH… HRK’SHEEEEWSH…_ just in time, he managed to fish some tissues out of ne box next to him with his trembling fingers to catch the heavy, desperate sneezes escaping him. Six of them in a row, each as painful and exhausting as the next. His father found him like that and crouched down in front of him.

“JJ!” he called out startled and put his hand on his son’s forehead. It was burning. “Oh dear, my son… you really don’t feel well.”

The young skater shook his head. “Cad we go back to the hotel, dad?” he asked, his voice terribly hoarse and congested.

His father sat down next to him and took him into his arms. “This won’t be possible, my dear,” he said with a worried smile. “At first you must go to get your bronze medal.”

JJ, who was still holding a bunch of tissues to his runny nose, couldn’t quite believe what his father told him. He raised his tired head laboriously to look into Alain’s eyes. “Really? I’b od the podiub.”

“Yes, son, you did it!” The man beamed, some proud back in his worried face. “You’ve succeeded… despite… everything.”

The young skater took the tissues away revealing a bright red nose. He felt a hint of that boiling oil again when he flung his arms around his daddy’s neck, a spark of victory in his fever-bright blue eyes.


End file.
